


Looks You Misconstrue Together

by betweentheheavesofstorm



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Baristas, F/M, Fluff, Mentions of Blood, Pining, The reality of customer service, minor accidents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-22
Updated: 2017-12-22
Packaged: 2019-02-18 17:22:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13104924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/betweentheheavesofstorm/pseuds/betweentheheavesofstorm
Summary: ‘Cassian’s got a date after work?’ Jyn leans against the shelves behind her. ‘He’s going to smell like gingerbread lattes.’akaThe One Where They're Overworked Baristas





	Looks You Misconstrue Together

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from the song 'Little Things You Do Together' by Sondheim. (I've already got a fic named after it..)

‘You forgot to clean the coffee machines,’ Cassian says, the minute Jyn walks in the door.

‘I didn’t forget,’ she says, dropping her jacket and backpack onto the nearest chair. There aren’t any customers in and she’s fairly sure she’s pulled a shoulder muscle somehow. Even though the backpack isn’t heavy, the weight has still hurt. ‘I _remembered_ that Krennic was in from eight and thought he might enjoy doing it. Take the time for reflection, you know?’

‘Well, he didn’t.’ With a dishcloth over his shoulder, Cassian has some kind of cross parent vibe going. Which is actually super weird if she thinks about it too much. ‘He made me do it, and it put him in a fantastic mood all morning.’

A mood that has evidently passed along to Cassian. Great.

‘Sorry, OK? Is that what you want to hear?’ She digs her nametag out of her bag and pins it to her shirt, accidentally stabbing herself in the process. ‘ _Ow.’_

‘You don’t sound very sorry.’

‘I thought you were all about fighting the system. Telling capitalism where to stick it.’

‘Yes, but I’m also about keeping my employer in a good mood so that he doesn’t fire me.’ He takes the dishcloth off his shoulder and starts wiping down the already clean counter. Has he spent the morning anticipating how he’s going to tell her off? She would have, in his position. ‘You can’t leave your jacket there, people might come in.’

‘All right, I get it.’ With exaggerated slowness, Jyn collects her things and dumps them in the staff room. Cassian’s usually a pretty chill person to work with, even if he reminds her how bad cigarettes are on a daily basis. Whether he’s being pedantic or genuinely trying to help, it gets annoying fast.

A couple of customers have appeared when she emerges. Cassian’s serving them with his abrupt friendliness that looks genuine until you get to know him. She joins him behind the counter and starts making the cappuccino in the order.

Wednesday shifts are always the worst. Cassian’s either grumpy or exhausted after spending the morning with Krennic, and then he gets to skip off at four, leaving her with the new guy. Bodhi’s learning fast, but he still doesn’t know anyone well enough to bitch about them and she’s still teaching him how to make milkshakes.

Time passes more easily when it’s busier. The constant repetition of making coffees and ringing up transactions lets her mind switch off. Now and again she catches sight of her reflection, and is relieved to see that her eyes aren’t as glassy as they feel.

Still, it’s enough for Cassian to notice. After the line’s cleared, he looks across to her and mutters, ‘You might want to work on your customer service.’

‘What’s wrong with it?’

He glances around. Everyone’s talking too loudly to be able to hear them. ‘Krennic said something about you looking like you were judging people’s orders.’

‘You’re talking with him behind my back now?’

‘I’m telling you to _help_ you. But never mind.’

‘No, wait, what did he say?’

Cassian shrugs and moves away. Jyn follows him.

‘I’m serious, what did he say?’

‘Just that we’re not in a great place right now. With the business.’ He still looks uncomfortable.

‘He can’t fire me,’ she says immediately. ‘I’m the fastest on the coffee machines. If he fires me the whole place will go under.’

‘Maybe show him that,’ he moves away. This time, she lets him go. ‘And don’t tell anyone I told you this.’

 

‘Thank god,’ she says, as Bodhi clips on his nametag. ‘Cassian’s been unbearable.’

‘He probably wanted to get going,’ Bodhi says, with a shrug. ‘Got a date later.’

‘That’s really funny.’

Bodhi frowns. ‘I’m not joking. He told me the other day.’

‘Cassian’s got a date after work?’ Jyn leans against the shelves behind her. ‘He’s going to smell like gingerbread lattes.’

‘Is that a bad thing?’

‘I don’t know, depends if she’s into coffee. Since when were you and Cassian this close, anyway?’

Bodhi shifts, uncomfortable. ‘He’s a friendly guy. He’ll chat, if you give him a chance.’

She’d never pictured Cassian as a guy who went on dates. Mostly because she never pictured him at all outside of work. Still, it makes sense; he’s an attractive dude. If she were to get very drunk, she would probably go there. Thank god he always leaves work parties before the Prosecco comes out.

‘Yeah, yeah.’

As if he’s read her mind, Bodhi says, ‘We were talking about starting work drinks on Friday. I know it’s your day off, but if you’re free you should come.’

‘What does drinks entail, exactly? Like getting pissed, or - ’

‘ _Drink_ singular would probably be more like it,’ Bodhi says hastily. ‘You know, going to the pub for a bit after work. Hanging out.’

‘Who would be going?’

‘Me, Cassian, Baze, Chirrut, you?’

She shakes her head, and starts stacking clean ceramic cups to put back on the shelf. ‘Remind me how long you’ve been working here?’

‘Um, a month and a half.’

And he’s already established in the social circle. For a guy this awkward, he’s doing well.

He’s doing a lot less well when he manages to knock over the stack of cups. He catches a couple, but the rest shatter noisily on the floor.

‘Shit! Shit shit shit – ’

‘Here,’ Jyn hurries over to help, but he’s already crouching down to pick up the pieces. A second later he lets out a muffled exclamation and straightens up. Blood is welling from two places on his hand; he grabs the counter to steady himself and sends drops flying.

‘Whoa.’ Jyn grabs some paper towels from the stack and hands them to him. ‘Keep pressure on.’

Bodhi nods, but both cuts are bleeding so furiously that they’re soaking through the paper. There’s still blood all over the counter, that’s going to be a serious health and safety violation if she doesn’t clean that up soon.

‘Do you know where the first aid kit is?’

‘I think so.’ He loses grip on one of the paper towels and it flutters gracefully down to the floor.

‘Go find it. There should be bandages in there.’

Clutching his hand, he makes his way off the shop floor. Hoping customers aren’t watching, Jyn grabs a bottle of antiseptic spray and starts cleaning off the surfaces. This is just perfect. First Cassian, now this. Fucking Cassian. He’s probably off having the time of his life, complaining about that bitch from work…

Bodhi re-emerges five minutes later. He has not, as she’d hoped, dealt with his hand, but has managed to bleed through several plasters and all over his uniform.

‘I’m having a little trouble,’ he says, semi-apologetically.

‘Oh my god.’ She makes a snap decision. ‘I think you should go home.’

‘What about my shift?’

‘I’ll figure it out.’ She’s going to have to call Cassian, but if she tells Bodhi that he’ll never leave. ‘Get your stuff and go, OK? And text me when you get home.’

‘You’re not my real mum,’ he says, grumbling, but obeys. She waits until he’s through the doors before pulling her phone out of her back pocket and dialing Cassian’s number. She already slightly hates herself for it, but she doesn’t have contact details for Baze or Chirrut and she’ll be damned if she calls Krennic in for a mess like this.

 

She’s got the mess cleared up by the time he arrives. The café hasn’t been too busy in the interim; though she’s had to explain there was a minor accident to a couple of customers.

‘I’m really sorry,’ she says. ‘There was just a _lot_ of blood.’

‘It’s fine,’ he insists. He’s still in his date clothes: a black t-shirt and a jacket she hasn’t seen before. ‘Is Bodhi OK?’

‘He texted me just now,’ she confirms. ‘His roommate’s taking care of him.’

‘The twin, right? The one who’s dating _your_ roommate?’

‘No, the other twin. Luke lives with Bodhi; Leia’s seeing Han.’ Sometimes her life feels uncontrollably like a soap opera. ‘Sorry for interrupting your date.’

‘Really, It’s fine. Did you tell Krennic, or – ’

‘I was thinking of telling him tomorrow. Wait and see if Bodhi can work.’

‘I thought you said he was OK.’

‘Yeah, but it’s on his hand, and I don’t want him to flex it and accidentally bleed into somebody’s coffee.’

‘So is he all right by your standards, or everyone else’s?’

She leans her elbows on the no-longer-bloodstained counter. ‘What does that mean?’

‘Just that I’ve seen you show up for an eight am start having had no sleep, knock back several espresso and Red Bull combinations and proceed to work the whole next day. I’m not sure Bodhi has the same resilience.’

‘I regretted every minute of that experience,’ she says. ‘And yes, I mean no, Bodhi will survive.’

He nods, slowly, and heads to the staff room to pick up his nametag, which he pins onto his t-shirt.

‘Are you in tomorrow?’ she asks.

‘No.’

That makes her feel slightly better about hijacking his evening. He’ll get paid overtime, but if anyone dragged her back in after her shift was over she couldn’t guarantee it wouldn’t get violent.

‘Were any customers in when it happened?’ Cassian asks.

‘A few. They were all talking; I don’t think they noticed.’

‘So it’s not been too busy?’

‘Average. A woman asked if she could have a hazelnut latte even though she had a nut allergy.’

‘She can. The syrup doesn’t have any real hazelnuts in it.’

‘Oh.’ Jyn’s been here for years, and this is the first she’s heard of it. ‘I didn’t tell her that.’

Custom picks up a little in the last hour. A large group of teenagers come in, order milkshakes and pile into one booth. She watches them warily; if they’re going to cause a mess it’s going to fray her last nerve.

‘You do look exhausted,’ she adds to Cassian, while they’re both at the blenders. ‘If you want, I can hook you up with that coffee and Red Bull combo.’

‘Thanks, but no thanks.’

‘Your loss.’

Milkshakes done, she loads them onto a tray and carries them over to the group. They’re not being messy, but they are loud. Just because she’s not as tired as Cassian doesn’t mean she can’t hate them for it.

The last twenty minutes crawls by. She remembers to clean the coffee machine this time, and wastes a good six minutes rearranging boxes of herbal tea. The teenagers are the only customers left, and they’re showing no signs of leaving.

‘I really am sorry,’ she says quietly to Cassian. However fine he claims to be, he looks like a wreck. ‘For calling you in. I didn’t have Chirrut’s number.’

‘I told you, it’s OK.’

‘I ruined your date,’ she points out. ‘But look, I’ll make it up to you.’

‘How?’

She shrugs. ‘I’ll cover your shift next time you need it. Won’t even complain.’

‘Wow, Jyn, that’s touching,’ he says, but he’s smiling slightly.

In the corner of her eye, she sees the clock reach the hour. Clearing her throat, she moves around and starts turning appliances off. When she looks back, Cassian’s gone to tell the teenagers to leave.

It doesn’t take long to close up. She’s already done the coffee machine, so it’s just wiping down the last table and then they’re free to go.

‘Jyn,’ Cassian begins, following her into the staff room. She turns. He was right behind her, so now they’re standing uncomfortably close. She should step back, be polite, but her eyes have locked onto his and she’s unable to move. He’s looking at her, not with his usual exasperation, but something else, and she’s very conscious of the foot of space between them.

This is ridiculous, she thinks. She breaks the eye contact, but now she’s staring at his jawline, and his lips –

Ducking her head down, Jyn steps away.

 

‘You did _what?’_

‘I called him. What else was I supposed to do?’

Bodhi groans. ‘He was on a _date.’_

‘And the café was going to turn into a bloodbath if I hadn’t sent you home.’ The fixation on the date part is getting a little annoying. Yes, Cassian exists as a person who dates people. Just because she’s been forced to accept that doesn’t mean she wants to focus on it. ‘Look, I asked him because I knew he’d come, and I needed somebody.’

‘Of course he’d come.’

‘Yeah. We’ve been working together for like, two years. I’d have come for him.’

Bodhi flexes his bandaged fingers. ‘Right. Yeah. But also like, because he’s in love with you.’

Jyn nearly drops the latte she’s making. ‘ _Excuse me?’_

Bodhi blinks. ‘Isn’t it obvious? I thought everybody knew.’

‘Knew what?’

‘That he likes you, but you’re such a dick to him he just powers through. Are you really saying you haven’t noticed?’

‘Cassian _ignores_ me.’

‘Yeah, like I said, he doesn’t act on it.’

‘Where are you getting all this?’

‘I notice stuff. Mostly because I was trying to figure out if you didn’t like me or whether you were that mean to everyone.’

‘I’m not mean.’

‘All right, you’re just cold. That’s not my point.’

‘What kind of pain medication are you on?’

‘If you don’t want to talk about it, we don’t have to.’ He hands a peppermint tea over the counter to a customer and looks back at Jyn. ‘I thought that might have been why you called him. To disrupt his date.’

‘For the last time, I don’t care about that fucking date,’ she says, and regrets it as soon as she remembers the customers can hear her. They probably don’t care. Barista drama means nothing when they’re waiting for their caffeine fix.

‘All right,’ Bodhi says, though he sounds unconvinced.

‘How’s your hand doing?’

‘Better, thanks.’

The café starts getting busier, allowing Jyn to escape further conversation. Bodhi’s clearly so desperate for drama that he’s started inventing it. She really is living a soap opera.

The idea that there’s something between her and Cassian is ridiculous. They’re friends. Work friends. Who’ve made it through the past two years without learning anything significant about each other’s lives. Sure, he looked good out of uniform the other day, but then he looks good in uniform too. That’s nothing new; she’s always thought that. It doesn’t _mean_ anything.

And yeah, he’s been kind of weird around her this week, but she’s got that figured out already. He can’t decide whether to be pissed off with her or not. Case for: she interrupted his evening and made him work overtime; case against: it was an emergency.

She’s not about to let Bodhi run her life.

 

When Krennic calls Jyn into his office, she assumes it’s about the accident. They’ve already been through it, but now there’s an ongoing saga about updating the work first aid kit. Krennic’s been following his usual strategy of asking around for ideas and taking credit for the best ones, so she’s got no reason to assume any different.

He’s not firing her. He repeats that several times. She’s been with the business a while now, he respects that. She can be the most efficient worker and he doesn’t want to cause any ill feeling.

He is, however, reducing her hours.

She’s not upset, exactly. This isn’t the greatest job in the world. But still, something’s odd happening to her insides; they’re contracting, and now it’s difficult to breathe.

Krennic dismisses her and she’s halfway down the hallway before it registers that she’s moved. She walks straight through the café to the curb outside, fumbling in her back pocket for a cigarette. Too late she remembers she left them in her bag. There’s no way she’s walking back through the building to get to the staff room, so she sits down on the curb and looks at the street.

She’s really not wearing enough layers to be outside right now. Her arms are already covered in goosebumps. She draws her arms around her body and then lets them fall away, taking a fierce pleasure in how cold it is.

‘Jyn?’

She looks up. It’s Cassian. ‘What do you want?’

‘Are you OK?’

‘Aren’t you supposed to be working?’

He crouches down and sits on the curb beside her. ‘I could ask the same thing. What did Krennic want?’

‘Nothing. Just to tell me he’s cutting my hours so that when he fires me next month it won’t come as a shock.’

‘He can’t fire you.’

‘Really? Does he know that? Because you’re the one who was telling me to be careful last week.’

‘He hired Bodhi what, two months ago?’ Cassian shakes his head. ‘He can’t get someone new, then turn around and sack someone who’s been here years. You could lodge a complaint.’

‘And what, beg for my job back?’ She stares at the street. ‘Maybe I’ll go and work for Starbucks.’

‘I wouldn’t blame you. Their coffee is better than ours.’

‘People would get mad at me for spelling their names wrong.’

‘Even if you don’t lodge a complaint, if Krennic pulls any more shit _I_ will.’

‘He’s your boss, too.’

‘So? Starbucks would probably take us both.’

‘You’re joking, but thanks. Hey, do you know what Bodhi said to me the other day?’

Today’s already garbage, what else does she have to lose?

‘What?’

‘That you’re secretly in love with me and I’m too much of an arsehole to care.’

Cassian stares at her.

‘He’s nuts, right?’

‘Yeah,’ he says, after a pause. ‘I barely know you.’

‘Right.’

‘And even if I did, dating coworkers – that’s a bad idea.’

‘A terrible one.’

She can’t look at him. She doesn’t know what she’ll see if she does, or what he’ll see in her face. This has all got very complicated very quickly. A fortnight ago he was just Cassian. Same old, nagging and regrettably beautiful Cassian.

‘I’ll leave you to it,’ he says, getting up.

Her hand shoots out before she can stop herself, pulling him back down, pulling him to her.

‘Jyn, what – ’

‘Was he right? I know I’m a dick so you don’t have to answer this, but was Bodhi right?’

He hesitates. ‘Yes. About some things.’

This time she doesn’t wait before kissing him. He’s warm and tastes of coffee, and maybe things being complicated can be OK.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not writing a lot at the moment (of fic or anything) but I had this idea about a week ago and wrote some stuff and then basically edited it all tonight. 
> 
> "Pissed" means drunk in the UK, I'm aware it means something different in the US. 
> 
> Happy Holidays everyone!


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